Categories

Anniversaries

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3-21-rehersal
3-21-jp-ceremony
3-21-renewal
A few weeks ago I spent the morning at the local frame shop picking out frames and mats for a special anniversary surprise. Usually Jason and I don't do anniversary gifts, preferring a nice dinner at home but this year I pulled out photos and invitations for some framing that's long overdue. This year on May 1st we'll mark our tenth anniversary though that in itself can be a bit confusing. We had a Justice of the Peace ceremony at the Arnold Arboretum beneath the blooming cherry trees on May 1st, 1999 and then a renewal of vows complete with a rehearsal dinner on April 29th, 2000. Later I made a little commemorative cross-stitch piece and didn't realize until I was arranging this framing that I got my dates jumbled, it has the month and day of one ceremony and the year of the other. Oops! The framing was done much more quickly than I anticipated so I've given the gift early. This morning we hung them in the bedroom on that big empty wall we created during a recent rearranging of furniture. I think they turned out beautifully and it's lovely to finally have them framed.

For those waiting to hear- the doc says I have some arthritis in the shoulder, tendonitis in the elbow, a strained or torn rotator cuff (most likely just strained) and cervical disk degenerative disease with a bone spur on c6-c7. I've got an NSAID prescription and appointments with the physical therapist and no physical activity restrictions so I can still knit, yay!

MOO notecards

NotecardsI recently took the plunge and ordered some MOO Notecards created from some of my photos off Flickr. I thought they might make nice gifts. I love that they are made to stand up and that you get a "contact print" card along with the set. My only grumble is that some of the photos appear to have a soft focus which is not the case with the original. I can’t figure out why some of them are like this and not others since they are all taken with the same camera etc. I have sent them a query and hopefully will learn something useful in the process.

I am forbidden to produce milk

Moo_cardsI definitely had MOO card envy a couple of years ago when they were brand new but as I had no Flickr account at the time there wasn’t much I could do about it. This year I finally remedied that and here’s a sampling of my very first set of MOO cards. A few of the images have oversaturated color and one or two seem a bit washed out but overall they turned out very nicely indeed. On the back I put my name, email address, blog address and avatar photo.

All dressed up

9_3_finishedHere’s the finished scarf after it’s rather aggressive blocking session. The pattern calls for fingering weight but used sportweight Frog Tree alpaca. I adjusted it a bit by casting on  75% of the recommended stitches and knit 75% of the rows before binding off. Casting on and joining without a twist is much easier with a 60" circular rather than the 28" called for.   Note that I have used size 3 needles with this yarn but I knit loosely and usually go down a size so if you wanted to replicate what I did and you normally knit on gauge then you’d want to use size 4 needles.

9_2_sunflower
We had another beautiful day yesterday and celebrated Labor Day with a gathering of friends. We provided pulled pork and coleslaw and they brought yummy things like baked beans, guacamole, and peanut butter trifle. I couldn’t resist these sunflowers at the market when I was picking up the rest of the fixin’s.

Photogenic

3_34_elphWe’re celebrating my birthday a few days early this weekend. Jason cooked a fabulous dinner last night and there’s cake in the fridge for later today. As a gift I got a new little camera that can fit in my pocket and will be perfect for pictures when the big camera is too intimidating. This is the Canon Elph with 6 MP and a 1 gig memory card. Should keep me out of trouble, no?

Spring cleaning

14_gigs_of_photosThe computer has been a wee bit grumpy of late so I felt it was time to clean house and double check that important things were backed up. I spent the whole of yesterday cleaning out unwanted photos that were duplicates, out of focus, poorly exposed or unusable for any other reason. I was left with photos dating back to December 2004 (the last time my computer imploded and ate all my digital photos) that total nearly 15 gigs of memory. I needed 4 DVDs just to back them all up but now they are happily safe and sound.

Half_finger_tan
I also managed to finish up the first half finger glove out of the tan Frog Tree. This will be the pair that I keep for myself. I altered the ribbing for this pair from 1 x 1 to 2 x 2 which is a bit quicker for a thrower like me to knit.

White Balance

Toasty_toes_sock_oneHere’s the first Toasty Toes sock and also the first experiment with white balance. I think it’s still going to take some fiddling to get it right but this is at least an improvement. The background is much whiter but the sock colors are a bit washed out and not nearly as vibrant as they are in person.

Freeze Frame

Light_tent_front After so many frustrations of taking photos without adequate lighting, I decided to do something about it. The days are getting shorter and my lovely natural light is rapidly disappearing not to mention it’s usually dark by the time I want to do food photos. I began poking around looking at light tent prices and I didn’t like them.  I thought it was something I could probably make myself much more inexpensively. After a bit of searching I found some directions for a light tent and I went from there.

Light_tent_backOver the weekend I spent some hours purchasing PVC, ripstop nylon, lamps, and backgrounds. Yesterday I began sawing PVC and assembling. I’ve modified the original design (You know I can never quite follow directions, don’t you?) to include a full box frame and a sewn nylon cover. I wanted to use the nylon rather than a sheet because dirt and things won’t cling to it like they will an old sheet. It’s also easier to keep the nylon ripple free if I want to shoot without a background.

Toasty_toes_start
Here’s the first test photo. I need to get out the camera manual still because my background isn’t as white as it should be and I know I can fix that with white and grey cards. I’ve got white and grey felt but those should do nicely. I do think the yarn colors are a bit more true in this photo and oh by the way, this is the start of my exchange socks. If it looks like a big honkin’ ball ‘o yarn, that’s because it is.